In March 2012, the long-awaited first film in The Hunger Games series landed in cinemas, attracting large audiences all over the world. In the years that followed, three more films made their way to the big screen, transforming Suzanne Collins’s trilogy into a worldwide blockbuster.

However, despite calls from fans for more films and spin-off series, news from the world of The Hunger Games has remained pretty quiet. That is, until now.

In June last year, Lionsgate confirmed it would be adapting The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes – Collins’s 2020 prequel novel set 64 years prior to The Hunger Games – into a film. And now, at long last, the film (starring the likes of Viola Davis, Hunter Schafer and Rachel Zegler) is due to drop in cinemas.

Watch the trailer below:

It looks good, doesn’t it? It looks really good. 

And so, without any further ado, let’s dive on into the finer details of this much-anticipated requel (that’s prequel-reboot, for anyone who needs to know): 

Set 64 years prior to Katniss Everdeen’s story, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes introduces readers to a teenage version of Panem’s president Coriolanus Snow.

Fans of the original Hunger Games series will remember Snow as the main antagonist of Katniss Everdeen’s story, but in The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, we meet him as a senior in high school who is tasked with mentoring one of the tributes in the 10th annual Hunger Games.

Snow has high hopes for his mentorship and sees it as a way to bring the formerly wealthy Snow family back to a position of prosperity. However, when he is assigned the female tribute from District 12 – a strange girl named Lucy Gray Baird – he fears he’s being set up for failure.

As the book’s official synopsis reads: “Their fates are now completely intertwined – every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. 

“Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.” 

As far as cast lists go, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes has a pretty impressive one.

Taking on the main roles of Snow and Lucy Gray are Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, while Snow’s cousin Tigris will be played by Euphoria star Hunter Schafer.

The film also stars Viola Davis as the capital scientist and gamemaker Dr Volumnia Gaul, while Peter Dinklage stars as Casca Highbottom, the principal of the Capitol’s most prestigious high school and create of the Hunger Games.

Jason Schwartzman will also star as Lucky Flickerman, while other names in the cast include Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan, Ayomide Adegun, Ashley Liao and more. 

The trailer gave us the exact release date we’ve been waiting for – 17 November. That’s just over six months away – and we can’t wait to see the film when it hits screens. 

Images: Lionsgate